The Line (Snowcrash)
Stephenson is a fine author. Snowcrash was a good book. But
it has one line that is so telling that, when James and I first
discussed the book, long after reading it, he said “Ohh, Snowcrash is
great. The
Line!” And I knew precisely what
he meant.
The book came up twice today, and I was forced to recall the passage
through the haze of a few years. I sharpened my memory on chapter
thirty-six; to share with you its unadulterated glory:
Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that
under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in
the world. If I moved to a martial-arts
monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family
was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge.
If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, and devoted it to
wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to
being bad.
under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in
the world. If I moved to a martial-arts
monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family
was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge.
If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, and devoted it to
wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to
being bad.
Devotion and circumstances. How could mere facility not pale in comparison?